Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Airlines to Short City Budget

Airlines will offer almost 3,000 fewer domestic flights a day during the Thanksgiving season, promising fewer choices, fuller planes and higher fares for millions of Americans.

Compared with last Thanksgiving season, there will be 11 percent fewer flights, 2.6 million fewer seats, on nonstop domestic routes from November 20, the Thursday before Thanksgiving, through November 30, the Sunday afterward.

The Chicago drop in flights is scheduled to be on the order of 13.3% of that 3,000 - almost 400 flights. We don't know what the City garners from airlines, but we seem to recall there are charges for landing fees, gate usage, fuel surcharges, not to mention sales taxes on tickets, food and beverages in and out of the terminals. Hell, there might even be entertainment taxes on in-flight movies.

But we do know that many municipal budgets are based on "revenue projections." The City doesn't have a running balance for the most part and must generate revenue on a continuous basis to maintain payroll, services, and pay expenses. Something like cutting a few hundred flights is going to leave a largish hole in a budget already looking like Swiss cheese. Some other low lights:

Install red-light cameras at 50 more intersections - we'd love to see what the installation costs are on these cameras (concrete pylons, street wiring, hardware, etc) and then compare the money generated over a years time on a graph. We can testify that we've altered our driving habits and try to leave ten minutes early just so we aren't tempted to rush a yellow light and enrich the mayor by $100. Anyone want to bet tens of thousands of citizens are doing the same thing?

Raise residential permit parking guest passes from $10 to $20 for a book of 30 - we predict a lot more erasing and fraud to avoid buying guest passes.

That last one is part of a much larger problem. We've heard rumors that parking enforcement is down tens of percentages. Those fines are already listed as projected revenue. So what happens when the police aren't writing as many tickets? Well, first up, we've seen Streets and San supervisors writing tickets. Now we're seeing ticket cams mounted on street sweepers and CTA buses. The mayor has even hired meter maids in the face of a hiring freeze and these people have quotas that must be adhered to so their revenue generation outpaces their salaries paid.

But it's a well known phenomenon that the more you tax or impose fees on something, the less is collected and compliance goes down. Look at the City bottled water tax or the discrepancy in dog licensing fees for neutered versus non. People will do whatever it takes to avoid paying the extra money.

The city has sub-contracted ticket writing! There is a case report of a guy that got hit after writing a ticket and putting it on a car. . . the report stated that the victim stated that he was not a city worker, but, was contracted by the city to write tickets. Bet they have a quota!Q: How many days did the mayor ASK the aldermen to give back this year, or to pass up on their raise to help out with the budget problem, the problem that they caused? The mayor said at a press conference that non-union personnel are giving back a few days but, union workers refuse. What about elected officials---HELL, WHAT ABOUT YOU MAYOR WHAT HAVE YOU GIVEN BACK?

I don't think it cost the city a nickel to put up the cameras. I believe (could be wrong) that the private company foots the entire bill of install and maintenance and gets a handsome cut of the revenue generated. That is how the cameras in Arizona work, a friend there represents that particular company. In fact in Arizona when you initially contest the ticket the call center is owned by the camera company.

THE STREET SWEEPER CAM DONT WORK! WORD IS THE CAMERA GET DIRTY FROM ALL THE MUCK THE SWEEPER KICKS UP. THE CITY WANTED THE DRIVER TO WIPE THE CAMERA OFF AND THEY PUT IN A GRIEVANCE STATING ITS NOT PART OF THEIR JOB.

DONT THINK THE POLICE DEPARTMENT R THE ONLY PEOPLE JUST DOING THE BARE MINIMUM.

EXPECT THE GARBAGE MEN TO GO ALOT SLOWER WITH 1 GUY ON THE BACK OF THE TRUCK. TRY PICKING UP A SOFA ALONE.

I find it very weird that so many of these people who praise Hussan Obama can't see what this guy will cost them in the long run. Once and if he wins this election we will need to get a hugh increase in this contract to even stay even with what we will lose in taxes. Between the City and Fed's running this country the only winners are the bust outs.

SCC, If I don't register my gun next spring, are the police notified? I'm tempted not to register just to spite the pointless increase in the fee. So long as I don't have to worry about anyone knocking down my door, I won't renew my registration. Fucking bullshit. And here I am trying to be law-abiding, and I get slapped in the face? Fuck you, Daley!

Youre right about "meter maids" writing more tickets...one got me on the North side the other day. The "maid", a mid 20's or so lad, had hoped to write me before I returned to my car. Unfortunately for his nerves of steel, I arrived while he was in the act...I asked if he already started the ticket, as he sped up his fingers, shaking like a leaf. I asked if he got a good look at my city sticker and he had no answer. The lad then printed out the ticket, still shaking, dropped the ticket, and could barely pick it off the sidewalk. He knew......

Kid, if youre going to knowingly write our cars, I can only hope to see you become the Police someday. And Im guessing youll still be shaking like a leaf.

I plan on writing "zero" revenue parking tickets until I have a contract and 6% raise like the alderthieve's.

And if we all stick together we will win. But word has it that the Sgt's are being ordered to write us up for any little infraction so be prepared to get messed with for nonsense. Just reply yes sir/mam and then involve our useless FlOP. create paper for everything and always clear a job immediately. Go to hell shortshanks daley!

Revenue v. activity v. compliance is a balance of forces. High taxes or fees discourage activity and encourage non-compliance, but there can be costs to non-compliance (How hard is it to evade? What is the penalty for getting caught?). It's possible to tax/charge at levels that don't modify behavior, or modify behavior without promoting evasion - but it's tricky.

Indeed behavior should be the point of fines and enforcement. Of everyone drove legally, traffic and parking ticket revenue would be zero. (And there would be many fewer accidents.)

The dog license thing - is there a higher charge for non-neuters? And have more dogs been neutered? If so, that's not a bug, that's a feature, as we nerds say: fewer excess pups, strays, and feral dogs.

This morning, there was a guy wearing some kind of city/traffic jacket carrying what looked like a radar gun walking on the south side of Archer Avenue, south of the Orange Line Halsted stop, pointing it at northbound traffic. Do traffic aides have radar guns now?

Streets and San is going to get $2.50 a week fee for garbage pick up per residence.

10/21/2008 12:08:00 AM

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know the ghetto folk aren't going to pay for this. They just throw their cheetos bags, pop bottles, beer bottes and cans, chicken bones, etc. all over the west side. Check out the Eisenhower Xway parkways, there's gargage blowing around everywhere.

At 0420 hours this morning a beat car got a call to write a parking ticket at 2800 W. Augusta. Some car was parked partially on the sidewalk.

Who was the caller? It came from the POD camera. Now we know what the people at the Fusion Center are doing all night! What a joke!++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Your kidding right? You really think that the people in the Fusion Center have the time to make work for you? You think we're going to break radio OR computer silence for your parker? There are several groups of people watching the PODS. The OEMC watchers are retired cops and call takers who do only that. The Fusion Center only has time to check the PODs if there is a request or special attention for a pattern. The ob didn't come from the Fusion Center.

Simple economics..Excessive tax kills revenue and drives business to places with less tax. Chicago will die slowly under our big tax big government. Myself and many others have already stopped buying goods in the city and that's just the tip of the iceburg! I went to three weddings recently outside of cook county and each of the parties live in Chicago. They all said the same thing that the taxes were too high to get married in chicago and they got a lot more for less outside of the city.

Sorry Daley and Stroger you lose and stories like that will become more and more common. It's so sad that these fools can't figure it out.

At 0420 hours this morning a beat car got a call to write a parking ticket at 2800 W. Augusta. Some car was parked partially on the sidewalk.

Who was the caller? It came from the POD camera. Now we know what the people at the Fusion Center are doing all night! What a joke!++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Your kidding right? You really think that the people in the Fusion Center have the time to make work for you? You think we're going to break radio OR computer silence for your parker? There are several groups of people watching the PODS. The OEMC watchers are retired cops and call takers who do only that. The Fusion Center only has time to check the PODs if there is a request or special attention for a pattern. The ob didn't come from the Fusion Center.

10/21/2008 11:19:00 PM

Take it easy KID!! My guess is that you probably have never been the police in your very short career. What did we ever do before the fusion center. In case you are wondering, your beloved fusion center is a place that was created for officers "who know people".

It's OK, when you get a couple of hashmarks......and not the ones in your shorts, you can speak. Until then....remember, wipe from front to back.

And there will be many, many other shortfalls in projected revenue, like the Real Estate Transfer Tax.

That midget can wipe his ass with his budget. He's going to pay the price for spending like a drunken sailor and not running city government with fiscal responsibility.

Well, actually we're going to end up paying but Richard "TIF" Daley is going to learn what heavy lifting really is now.

With falling home values, increasing unemployment, rising taxes and invested retirement savings cut in half, people are going to suck it in and reduce spending – big time.

The more Daley taxes for everything but Real Estate, the more people will take steps to avoid them. It’s going to be a giant sucking sound of purchases leaving Chicago.

You're going to see a lot of Chicago restaurants go out of business, especially the expensive ones.

A Democrat like Daley knows nothing about denying oneself and spending less, as real people do. The reduced revenue that is coming is going to result in Daley driving around in a Pope mobile.

They can blame it all on the Bush policies over the last eight years, which factually is bullshit, but the rough times are just starting and it's going to be a while before the effects of the great mortgage rip-off at the feet of both parties unwinds.